Chris Tyroll is a busy litigation lawyer in the West Midlands. He’d like to have long lunches, plat golf and holiday in the Seychelles, but he puts up with early starts, no lunches and late nights.

One day three clients come to him with totally different problems. The first, an Employment Tribunal case against British Defence Systems, looks complicated. BDS manufactures a seek-and-destroy weapon, “The Retaliator”. The dismissal of one man has triggered a strike and two more workers have been sacked as a result. Then Tyroll deals with a distraught mother who cannot accept her son’s death and wants to get the coroner’s verdict changed from suicide to murder. And finally, why can’t an empty field be used to graze ponies?

As Tyroll investigates these cases, with the aid of his sharp girlfriend, Sheila McKenna, another client dies, and a chance comment by a witness reveals that all three cases are somehow connected. Tyroll finds himself and Sheila in a deadly confrontation.....